Compasses
How the Earth's Magnetic Field affects compasses.
The reason why a compass works is more interesting. It turns out that you can think of the Earth as having a gigantic bar magnet buried inside. In order for the north end of the compass to point toward the North Pole, you have to assume that the buried bar magnet has its south end at the North Pole, as shown in the diagram at the right. If you think of the world this way, then you can see that the normal "opposites attract" rule of magnets would cause the north end of the compass needle to point toward the south end of the buried bar magnet. So the compass points toward the North Pole.
WHAT IS A COMPASS
A compass is a tool that you can use to find a destination or go in a certain direction. You can use it in the wilderness and in other areas.
Step 1
Lay your map down somewhere flat if you can and place your compass on top. Draw a line between your starting point and your destination to show the direction of travel. Now, line up the base plate edge with the direction in which you want to go, represented in the photo by the highlighted line on the map.
Step 2
Keeping the base plate edge of your compass in line with your direction of travel, carefully rotate the graduated dial until the N, orientation arrow (5), and orientation lines (4) are all pointing in the direction of north on your map. On most maps north is straight up, but make sure you check with the legend on the map that you are using, I've seen maps that do not adhere to this cartographic convention. Ignore declination for now, if accuracy is not critical and the distance you have to travel is not enormous, you should be able to use the compass without declination adjustment.
Step 3
Remove the compass from the map and hold it level out in front of you with the direction of travel arrow (3) is pointing straight ahead. Turn your body until the north end of the magnetic needle (in my case it’s the black end, sometimes it’s red) is directly over the orienting arrow (5), pointing to the “N” on the dial.